The stress-free entrepreneur is about as rare as a rainbow unicorn. As an entrepreneur, you are fully aware of the pressures of building something from the ground up and how that has the ironic effect of beating you back into the ground from whence this dream emerged. But how can you function at your entrepreneurial, hyper-drive, win-fest mode when constant stress is beating you down?<\/p>\n
As a health professional\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0an entrepreneur, this is a constant balancing act I face on a daily basis. Here are some fundamentals you should know about stress but probably don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
There are three main kinds of stress:<\/p>\n
This one we all know and love. (By love, I mean hate.) When people think of the word \u2018stress\u2019, this is the kind of stress that usually comes to mind. You might be worried about work, career, finances, relationships, the 7 train on the weekends etc. Mental\/emotional stress is something we will need to deal with from the day we\u2019re born until the day we die. It\u2019s a fact of life that is entirely unavoidable. What\u2019s important is that we find healthful ways to manage this. This is an easy solution at times, and not so much at other times. For example, if there is a snake in the room, find another room to be in; conversely, if said snake is your boss\u2026not so easy.\u00a0But find something you enjoy that helps relieve stress. It could be something relaxing like meditation or yoga, or for entry-level employees, kickboxing might provide better relief. Whatever it is that works for you, it\u2019s important that you seek it out and practice it regularly. Understanding that this kind of stress in unavoidable, we must find something to help us manage it.<\/p>\n
This is a physical stress often caused by injury, like a slipped disc or fused spine. It can also be brought on by hours of poor posture at your desk. It\u2019s another important stressor that we need to be aware of and find ways to avoid or correct. This could be a chiropractic adjustment, physical therapy, or even regular massage therapy. Also be very aware of your posture at your desk. Sit up straight, and don\u2019t have your neck constantly bent down toward your computer screen.<\/p>\n
This third kind of stress is the least talked about but my absolute favorite. As a Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist, this is where I spend most of my time. Biochemical stressors can be anything from toxicities, deficiencies, malabsorption, maldigestion, hormonal imbalances, food intolerances, environmental toxins, and even things like parasitic infestations and bacterial or fungal overgrowths. And you thought you had a problem with the mental stress! What\u2019s most interesting about biochemical stress is that it\u2019s often (almost always)\u00a0hidden<\/i>. There is no hiding it when you have emotional stress, and physical stress generally causes pain, but chemical stress can stay hidden for years before eventually presenting symptomatically.<\/p>\n
At this point, I want to make something clear that will quite possibly blow your mind. There is no such thing as the \u2018mind-body connection.\u2019 I hear this term thrown around a lot, and although I can understand the intent of the person using it, I think they are missing the real truth of what they are speaking of. Mind-body connection implies they are two separate entities. They are not. It is as fallacious as saying the liver-body connection.<\/p>\n
Therefore, we have this cyclical effect going on. Emotional stress can cause and exacerbate chemical stress. Chemical stress can cause and exacerbate physical stress. And identifying and eliminating chemical stressors will help us better cope with mental stressors and so on. Get the idea?<\/p>\n
I find that by breaking it down this way, people often feel empowered because they understand that managing stress is far more within their reach than they may have realized. Making\u00a0daily <\/i>decisions to control the things that are easy, and making\u00a0occasional<\/i>\u00a0decisions to control things that are more difficult, will make the impossible things bear far less significance on one\u2019s mind and body.<\/p>\n
If you take an active role in managing all these areas of stress in your life, your entrepreneurial dreams will have no place to go but up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The stress-free entrepreneur is about as rare as a rainbow unicorn. As an entrepreneur, you are fully aware of the pressures of building something from the ground up and how that has the ironic effect of beating you back into the ground from whence this dream emerged. But how can you function at your entrepreneurial, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1223,"featured_media":7967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n